1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector with a terminal hooking device in which terminal metal pieces disposed inside of a connector housing are doubly fastened by both the terminal hooking device and the connector housing by attaching the terminal hooking device to the connector housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A connector with a terminal hooking device of this type is known as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. Hei 5-190229.
As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the connector with a terminal hooking device is constructed such that a terminal hooking device B is inserted from the rear part of a connector housing A into the connector housing A having a plurality of terminal housing compartments 22 to which terminal metal pieces (not shown) are attached through two steps of a preliminary connection state and a complete connection state, so that the connector housing A, the terminal hooking device B, and the terminal metal pieces are tightly fastened together.
The terminal housing compartments 22 into which a housing space 21 defined with a hood 23 is partitioned by partition walls 22b and bottom walls 22c are formed in the connector housing A. Each of opened portions 22a is formed on a side where each of the terminal housing compartments 22 faces the hood 23. Each of engagement portions 24 used for a complete connection is formed in an appropriate position inside of the hood 23.
A main frame portion 29 which is engaged with the hood 23 is formed in the terminal hooking device B. The main frame portion 29 is made up of an upper plate portion 29a, a lower plate portion 29b, and a middle plate portion 29c used as a middle partition.
Engagement plates 35 are attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the main frame portion 29, and the engagement plates 35 are each designed to be turnable on a hinge 35a. When the terminal hooking device B is completely connected to the connector housing A, the engagement plates 35 are turned and laid in the hood 23. Accordingly, the outside surfaces thereof become even with the outside surfaces of the upper plate portion 29a and the lower plate portion 29b, so that the complete-connection engagement portions 24 are each engaged with a projection 36 used for a complete connection.
The terminal hooking device 8 has flexible holding pieces 30 corresponding to positions where the terminal metal pieces are laid. The connector housing A has flexible hook pieces 26 corresponding to positions where the terminal metal pieces are laid in the terminal housing compartments 22.
When the terminal hooking device B is in a preliminary connection state, each of the flexible holding piece 30 climbs on a pushing projection 28 formed on the side of the opened portion 22a of the side wall 22b of the terminal housing compartment 22. Thereby, the flexible holding piece 30 is positioned out of a line along which the terminal metal pieces are inserted into and removed from the terminal housing compartment 22.
When the preliminary connection state is shifted to a complete connection state, a driven projection 37 formed on the side end of the flexible holding piece 30 is engaged with a drive groove 38 formed in the connector housing A, and thereby the flexible holding piece 30 is guided forcefully to a position to be engaged with the terminal metal pieces.
However, in the conventional attachment of the terminal hooking device B to the connector housing A, the flexible holding piece 30 having a large lateral width Z which is inserted into each of the terminal housing compartments 22 is guided to the position to be connected to the terminal metal pieces by the engagement of the driven projection 37 with the drive groove 38.
Therefore, when the terminal metal pieces are inserted incompletely into the terminal housing compartment 22, the flexible holding piece 30 rides on the terminal metal piece and then is bent by twisting, by which the driven projection 37 might be disconnected from the drive groove 38. In the flexible holding piece 30 having the large lateral width Z which is inserted into, especially, each of the three or more terminal housing compartments 22, the driven projection 37 has a marked tendency to be disconnected from the drive groove 38.
A solution to the aforementioned disadvantage might be to reduce the lateral width Z of the flexible holding piece 30 so that the flexible holding piece 30 can be inserted into and removed from the terminal housing compartment 22.
According to this solution, however, a large number of flexible holding pieces 30 are required, and in addition, the driven projections 37 are required to be formed on both sides of each of the flexible holding pieces 30, and also the drive groove 38 corresponding to each of the driven projections 37 is required to be formed in the connector housing A.
As a result, disadvantageously, the lateral width Z' of the connector housing A becomes larger, and thus the whole connector is made large-sized.